Ric Charlesworth Ric Charlesworth Images: Getty Images

What lessons on human nature did you learn in parliament?

Oh, if teamwork’s important in sport, then it’s just as important in politics. You just don’t see it very often.

Did politics heighten your appreciation of sport? 

I was part of a political movement that, for the first time, really provided athletes with the opportunity to be truly outstanding in a variety of sports. And that’s desirable. If we go the way of only the mass media sports being financially supported, then we’re going to have a very narrow sporting environment – footy, cricket, tennis, golf and that’s it. I’m concerned about where our sport is going. I certainly think there’s a place for the government to support athletes who want to be outstanding in a range of sports.

So hockey will suffer under the recommendations of the Crawford Report?

Well, you’ve got 150,000 Australians who play the game. I watch 60 and 70-year-olds out here playing. It’s a game that’s based on skill and speed, not brawn. And there are thousands of volunteers – my club has 38 fields where 1400 kids play hockey every Saturday and it’s all run by volunteers. By any measure, this is a sport that demands government funding. It ought to be rewarded and supported. What I find scary is that the major sports are massively supported by the tax payer. Every suburb in the country has got footy fields with goals, they’re building new AFL stadiums in Blacktown and the Gold Coast, the MCG just got renovated recently – that’s all public money. And Crawford’s running around saying that we ought not to support a sport like ours which runs on the smell of an oily rag. There are athletes in my program who are payed $250 a week to play and train. That’s less than the pension. An AFL rookie earns more than my son, who’s a doctor. It’s nuts.

– Aaron Scott